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Thursday, November 29, 2012

I cannot begin to tell you just how hard it has become to even sit down and try to put "pen to paper" lately. I have good intentions, but when I sit down and try to come up with something.... anything to write about I've just been getting stuck. It happens occasionally I know, but it makes it no easier to write.

I think much of it is due to the current conditions on this Big Blue Marble we call home. Tension can be felt everywhere it seems. Much of it is out of my control but I still feel that knot in my stomach. I've had to come to some serious conclusions concerning the land we live in and the people who are in control of it now. I'm afraid we are watching America die a slow and painful death. This incremental destruction of our liberties is maddening. All the smoke and mirrors, the lies and the liars, the haves and the have not's. Let's not say so though... Political Correctness has become a monster that we all fight. Oh dear!! We wouldn't want to hurt someones feelings' now would we?

I've come to believe that Americans will accept just about anything. Repeat a lie often enough and it will become the truth. I'm becoming jaded and cynical and I don't really want to be. I find myself wanting to scream at the top of my lungs "WHY CAN'T YOU SEE WHAT IS HAPPENING TO YOUR COUNTRY!!!!!!" Oh, wait.... the people spoke on election day. And what they said was that they like the Nanny State and whatever "ism" you want to call this mess. Facisim, Socialism, Communism....I won't argue the semantics. It's hard to watch and even harder to live among people who would argue the point.

Have you ever had one of those moments when everything just comes together in your mind? Things just "click" and finally you see the whole picture? I've had one of those recently. It took watching that movie 2016: Obama's America for me to suddenly understand just what the hell is going on, and worse, I can see exactly where this man would like to see us. I'd recomend the movie to everyone, but like the movie.... you will have to make your own mind up. I came away with a deeper understanding of just how far that tyranny has come and just where we are headed. I also wonder if we have already been complacent to long.

I've never been so sure that we are headed to some sort of eruption. The government obviously feels the same way. Why else are they stockpiling over 1.4 BILLION rounds of ammunition to be used by the varying agencies INSIDE the United States. They are preparing for an event yet unknown to us. Unfortunately I think that we are going to find out sooner than we would like just what they have planned. The intrusions into our lives has already begun. One good example would be the TSA moving from airport terminals to the streets. Just this week the head guy of the TSA told CONgress that he would NOT meet and testifybefore them and CONgress has NO jurisdiction over them. Sound Stazi to you? Drones will be flying our skies by 2015 in all states. They have already been used against a farmer up North over a cattle dispute. How long will it take before they start taking out the riff-raff that would dare to argue with them?. Ask those folks in Syria just how much safer they feel now. These are just a couple of things that have been on my mind lately. There are more. Lot's more. Someone asked me once if I could help them to understand some of the things l talk about. The only thing I could say (and I still feel bad about it) was that I don't want to be the one who shows you just how bad things are. Of course there is more to the story than that. There are reasons I didn't want to be the one to bring this "knowing" to her. Purely selfish reasons. Because once you start on the path to the truth you cannot turn back. You can't put the genie back in the bottle. You can not un-know things. I'll guarantee a few sleepless nights as well. I'll be the first to admit that I WANT people to wake up and smell the commie coffee for what it is, but in this case I didn't want to know that I was the one to bring this ugly mess to her. She has her own personal struggles and I just felt that all this "negative" energy was something she does not need. Of course I may be wrong, but I will accept that. I only hope that I didn't loose her friendship over my decision.

Saturday, November 24, 2012

I keep forgetting that it's Saturday. What with Thanksgiving and all I've been having to remind myself that its not Monday! I hope everyone had a wonderful time with family and friends. I'm happy to report that our Thanksgiving went wonderfully! It's amazing what a little bit of planning and foresight can do to make things run smoothly. Neither of us care all that much for turkey so we usually have something else. No telling what usually, but the way I have it figured it's not so much the "what" you have but the "why" you have Thanksgiving in the first place. I didn't get any pictures of dinner this year. The rechargeable batteries I've been using in my camera don't seem to be charging as well as they used to. I'll have them charged up and in the camera and try to take a picture and it already needs recharging again. Do rechargeable batteries have an expiration date? Anyway.... It was a pretty warm and sunny day here. Mars fired up the pit. Originally we were just going to smoke a chicken. Then he remembered the brisket I'd picked up on sale awhile back. Nothing says yummy like a smoked brisket! ( Of course that might just be because I'm from Texas) Our menu for the day might be a little off the traditional but we did have sweet potato's, Granny's Recipe Cornbread Dressing, pasta salad, fresh baked rolls and a Pumpkin Cheesecake for dessert. I won't have to cook for a week! LOL Other than that there's not much new to tell ya. We are still working in the garden when we can. All the irrigation tape has been taken up and properly stored till next spring. We still have to come back with compost and manure once we finish weeding out as much of the Johnson grass as we can so as not to have so much come back in the spring. I've got a feeling this is going to take awhile!

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Talk about lessons learned! This year I actually have a menu, a plan and an extra day..... Here's how it went last year......

I had good intentions. I really did!
It's the planning I didn't quite have worked out. I mean, it's not my
first time to cook Thanksgiving Dinner. (although you might question
that after today) I really hadn't even thought much about the dinner
itself. I kind of had an idea of what I wanted to do. Just a simple
meal, nothing really fancy since it's just Mars and I here. And as far
as he was concerned I could have made any old meal as long as I called
him to dinner. The one thing I knew I wasn't going to do was to go to
town for any of it. If we didn't already have it here at the house
already I wasn't going to make it. Since the oven in the RV is too small
to hold a turkey I decided to just bake a whole chicken instead.

On Wednesday, instead of prepping things ahead of time,(yeah, what was I
thinking, right?) I decided I should make cookies for the neighbors and
for Bob down at the lumber yard. (more about that later) I made a huge
batch of Snickerdoodles, and helped Mars some with the skirting on the
trailer. I delivered "Bob the Builder" his cookies. Then "life" just sort
of happened and before you know it the day was gone. I figured what
the heck, It's just a simple meal and won't take much time at all to get
it done in the morning. So off to bed I went. And didn't wake up till
almost 9:30. Hey it's Thanksgiving right?? I wasn't too upset though, heck I was just going to bake a
chicken and some sweet potato's right? How hard can that be?

So while I'm drinking coffee and checking out emails I got to thinking
that well... it IS Thanksgiving. Maybe I should make some dressing
(that's southern for stuffing) to go with that bird. I mean what's
Thanksgiving without dressing? I ran through the items in my head that
I'd need... ok no problem... I think I've got everything.

So as I'm making breakfast, I realized I only had a half a loaf of
bread left and I was going to need it ALL for the stuffing. And if we
were going to have chicken and dressing we were going to need something
to sop up the gravy wouldn't we? So I needed to make some bread. I
needed to make some anyway... But then I got to thinking... you can't
just have bread with a Thanksgiving dinner can you? I'd need to make
some rolls too. No problem, I'd just whip up a batch of dough before I
got started on everything else.
Wait a second...Did I just say GRAVY? Where did that come from? But you
know if you are going to have chicken and dressing you just have to
have gravy right? I mean it IS Thanksgiving. And really, it isn't all
hard and takes no time at all to whip up...

So now the menu was Chicken and Dressing with giblet gravy, baked sweet
potato's ( I'm not crazy about the sweet potato casserole, thanks but no
thanks) and homemade rolls. It sound's simple enough and traditional
but then I got to thinking.... Man I would sure love some deviled eggs
to go with that! We used to have them every holiday when I was a kid. Ok, easy enough, right? But wait!!! We need a desert
of some kind don't we I mean it IS Thanksgiving and what would it be
without dessert? I have a bunch of pumpkin spice pudding I got on sale
last year that I could make pretty quick and I had some whipped topping
in the freezer. I'd just need to go into the understorage on the
trailer to find the pudding.

So I set out to make Thanksgiving Dinner. And apparently, looking back, I was having a "Blonde" day.

Step 1) Mix up the dough. Get hot water ready to "proof" my yeast. Grab
the sugar canister.... empty! Go out to storage and fill the sugar up.
Put sugar, yeast and water in the bowl and let it start working. Grab
the flour canister. Two cups left in it, need 6. (Darn, made cookies
yesterday and used it all) Go to storage and get more flour. Mix the
dough and let it rise for an hour or so.

Step 2) Slice up the half a loaf of bread to let it "air dry" for a bit.
Chop celery and onion and set it in the fridge for later. Take the
celery ends to the rabbits because they really like them.

Step 3) Put eggs on to boil for the Deviled Eggs. So far so good.

Step 4) Go out to the understorage to find the pudding. Unload several
boxes before I realize what I need is in the BACK. Find the pudding mix
and re-stack the boxes. Find a can of cranberry sauce. YaY!! Bonus!! What's
dressing without cranberry sauce? This is when I find a can of pumpkin I
forgot I had. Hmmmm.... boy, pumpkin pie sure would be good... Of
course I've never made a pumpkin pie before but how hard could it be?
And it IS Thanksgiving....

Step 5) Put cranberry sauce in the fridge. Look up recipe for Pumpkin
Pie and realize that it's the same one that's on the can! Calls for
evaporated milk. Which is in storage. Go out and unload a few boxes and
find the milk. Hmmmm I'm going to need a pie shell. Hop on the internet and look up a recipe
for one that sounds simple enough.

Step 6) Bread dough is ready to form into rolls. Make two pans and a loaf of
bread and let rise till doubled. Put the rolls in the tiny oven to
bake. Set the timer (because it is becoming apparent I'm not to be
trusted today) Take a break because after all... it IS Thanksgiving.

Step 7) Put the second round of bread in the tiny oven to cook.

Step 8) Make the pie dough and wonder why it's not holding together like
it should. Read the recipe and see where it says chill the dough first.
Put it in the fridge and start mixing up the pumpkin filling. I can't
find the ground cloves.... I have whole cloves. OK, break out the little
spice grinder and try to grind them up. They don't grind up real well
but at this point it is going to have to do. Take the pie dough out and
it's better now. Roll out two pie crusts because the recipe says to
make one deep dish pie and I don't have a deep dish.

Step 9) Take out the bread, put the pies in the oven and cross my
fingers. Recipe says it should take approximately an hour. Set the timer
(because it's now my best friend)

Step 10) Put celery,onions and butter in pan to saute for the dressing.
Look for the poultry seasoning. There IS no poultry seasoning. Wonder
if there is any in storage. Go out to look, pull out the boxes...
nothing... put the boxes back and hit the internet (again) for a
homemade poultry seasoning recipe. I actually have all the spices. I
know this because I had just looked through every single one I have
looking for the poultry seasoning. Wash the spice grinder (because it
has clove powder stuck in it) Mix up seasoning and add to the celery and
onions, cut bread cubes and add them and the other ingredients
necessary. Set aside till I'm ready to do the chicken.

Step 11) Check the pie's. They are nowhere near done. Put them back in
to cook and set the timer for 30 minutes. Check the clock. Realize that
Thanksgiving Dinner is really going to be Thanksgiving Supper.

Step 12) Wash the chicken and am amazed that all the "innards" are in
it. Season chicken and stuff with the dressing. Check the pies....
still not done. Set timer for another 15 minutes.

Step 13) Make the Deviled Eggs. Nothing went wrong.... weird.

Step 14) Start the "innards" in chicken stock and spices. Check the pies. Almost done. Set timer for 5 more minutes.

Step 15) Take a break cause after all it IS Thanksgiving.

Step 16) Pies are ready!!! Take out to cool and put chicken in. Set timer for 1 hour. Put sweet potato's in too.

Step 17) Realize I used all the boiled eggs for the deviled eggs and have none for the gravy. Put on some to boil and start the gravy.

Step 18) Wait for chicken to bake and eat a couple of rolls because I'm
starving. Set out plates, etc for dinner. Open the can of cranberry and
see its gone bad. At this point I'm no longer worried about it... Give
me CHICKEN! Toss it out in the compost pile. Finish up the gravy.
Check the clock. Almost time.... Check chicken and see that it is
nowhere near done. It's going to be another hour. <sigh>

Step 19) Spend some quality time with Mars and hand him another roll.
Talk about all the things we are thankful for this year, and how blessed
we are to be here.

Step 20) Dinner is finally ready. Give thanks for all we have been blessed with this past year and eat till I'm about to pop.

In looking back, I realized that all this could have been a whole lot
easier with at least SOME planning on my part. But I have to say that if
nothing else it was a memorable Thanksgiving Dinner. Everything worked
out and that's really all that matters in the end. It was still one of
the best Thanksgiving's I've ever had.
~~~~~~ Hey ... I'm Just Sayin' ... ~~~~~~

Saturday, November 10, 2012

What have we been up to lately? With the garden now nothing more than a few dead plants and the weeds now, we are trying to get it ready to put to bed for the winter. Of course that sounds easy enough doesn't it? Uhmmm..... We've been working on the beds a little at a time trying to knock back the Johnson grass as best we can while we are at it. The irrigation lines still need to be rolled back up for the winter. The beds all still need to be dressed with the compost and the mature manure from the neighbors horses. Then we should be good to go for the spring. I noticed while searching in the dirt for the bottom of the dang root systems of this stupid Johnson grass that the soil is so much better than it was last year. We'll get a soil sample done before spring too. I'd be curious as to what is going on out there!

In other news on the home front, we (read Mars here) did our first butchering out here. The two big ol roosters I had to separate from the others (and each other) were the first to go. Mars built himself a butchering station out under a big old tree and proceeded to off Stewie and Randy Roo. Everything went according to plan. Stewie made a wonderful meal of chicken and dumplings and Randy is now waiting in the freezer for warmer days! LOL I'll have to pressure cook him cause they are pretty tough old birds. We still have 3 roosters to go. These were the ones from the chickens born in the spring. I don't know why we waited so long.... all I can say is... Stuff happens!

We've also been taking advantage of these nice days. I've been saying all summer that once it cools off we can tackle the mess out there in the barn. All our "stuff" is stored out there on pallets and was pretty much just a big ol' tumbling mess. Not anymore!! Everything has been reorganized and I can actually find something when I need to. We even made walkways between the pallets so it would be easier to access things.

Mars is working on getting the wood stove hooked up out in the barn. Gotta have heat in the "man cave" ya know! He doesn't like to be indoors if he can help it but I'm betting he'll be spending some time out there this winter. This RV can give you claustrophobia when cooped up in it for to long! Trust me on this one.

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